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My name is ... and when I grow up I want to be ...
12 August 2010
By Blanka Sengerová
Do you remember freshers' week and the obvious "where are you from?", "which A-levels did you do?", "did you take a gap year?", "which college are you at? (if Oxford or Cambridge)", and so on? I propose that we reinvent this game and introduce each other on here.
Elsewhere in the forum, some people were talking about the possibility of being able to see people's background at a glance, with Simon Smith saying that "It would be even more useful if all users of the blog had a publicly accessible profile that we could click on". I agree with him, and as he says there is a bunch of six core contributors (http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/218231/Core-contributors.html - as a matter of fact, will more core contributor positions become available in future?), but for the rest of us, the ability to find out about our background depends on how big our web presence is and how uncommon our name is (Googling "Blanka Sengerova" is much likelier to come up with a positive hit of a page that involves me than "Simon Smith" is to come up a page that involves Simon).
Which brings me to the point that in this age of technology, many of us have surely googled people who we may have come across professionally (at conferences, the person who will be interviewing you...), which includes those who have posted on this forum? For instance, when googling Andy I was interested to find out that one of his group's collaborators also collaborates with us, and when googling Hannah I found her own blog, which had some interesting insights on life as a researcher in France. In return, I have noticed that academia.edu has sent me an e-mail to tell me someone searched for me on google, usually soon after I posted something on here.I think that having people on this forum under their real name adds to the credibility of any discussion - you're much more likely to engage in discussion with a user called "Joe Smith" or "Anna Jones" than "geekyguy", "sciencechick" or similar. On the other hand, the fact that any comments I make may come up in a google search of my name in future mean that I am careful of what I say here - something I wouldn't want my current boss or possible future interviewer to know, I wouldn't say on here. Likewise, if describing a situation from work, I would be careful to be vague enough for no one particular to be identifiable. I guess that is just a fact of modern life - we are all quite easy to trace down?To start the ball rolling on the getting to know each other's background front, as a way of my own introduction, I am a still a relatively fresh postdoc at the University Oxford (since April 2009). I started my research career with an undergraduate degree in Natural Science (specialisation Biochemistry) at Pembroke College in Cambridge (with undergraduate projects working on the mechanism of DNA gyrase inhibition by quiniolone drugs and on the inhibition of Hsp90 activity by geldanamycin and related drugs), and did my PhD in the chemistry department in Sheffield, where I worked on the detailed enzymology of a flap endonuclease from bacteriophage T5. I applied for some jobs in industry and medical writing towards the end of my PhD but ended up deciding, whilst at a conference which enthused me towards more research, that I should do one postdoc and then head outwards from academia. So we'll see what happens. Outside my immediate research, I am keen on public engagement with science and have done some work with Sense About Science/Voice of Young Science, as well as just getting trained to be a STEM ambassador.
Tennie Videler12 August 2010 at 03:23 PM
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Hi Blanka, good point about other regular contributors to this blog not currently having a profile. I have just put a comment box on the core contributor page http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/218231/Core-contributors.html and it would be fantastic if you'd put your background up that way! I saw Simon's comment along similar lines but hadn't got round to implementing the comment box. Thanks! Tennie
Sarah Davies13 August 2010 at 02:57 PM
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Good point as well about how important Google is for networking - both in terms of finding out about other people and needing to manage your own public profile. The first thing I do now if checking out conference speakers or contacts is to google them - usually to find their institutional webpage and get a sense of their publications. And as I'm currently between institutions - not to mention continents - one of the adverse effects is that I don't have a clear web presence. Though fortunately googling my name doesn't come up with anything embarrassing - just lots of other people!
Hannah Dee14 August 2010 at 11:01 AM
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On the Google point, I decided a few years ago to get myself a personal website that was institution neutral as the fixed-term mobility demanded of a researcher isn't really good for building up an online presence. Whilst academia.edu can provide something similar, I know that if I keep my domain registration up-to-date I now have a URL and email for life, which helps a lot in these inbetween periods!
Andy Humphrey18 August 2010 at 01:10 PM
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I've always regarded my name as quite distinctive, but it's amazing how many namesakes I have out there on Google. A number of the hits my name returns actually are me, but mainly in my other life as a poet, rather than my academic work. To date, I've never needed a separate web presence for my science; I've considered adding a section about it on my personal web page, but I'm always wary of the intellectual property implications of doing so. Posting on Vitae is an interesting challenge, precisely because of the confidentiality issues Blanka raises. Things often happen locally in my workplace that I want to blog about, but really feel it would be unethical to do so if any individuals could be identified from what I write. I have to be doubly sensitive of this when writing about my other role as a union rep.
Matthew Salois23 August 2010 at 04:33 PM
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I have often wondered how many external visitors to this site arrive through a google search. I am sure many regular contributors have the blog saved as a favourite, but I am curious as to how many readers stumble onto a particular blog through a general websearch.
Hannah Dee23 August 2010 at 05:18 PM
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I'm guessing that Tennie's got stats on that. It's actually fairly easy to find out if you host or maintain a website - indeed I was thinking of doing a post on search-engine tools and optimisation for researchers (how to find out who's visiting you, and how to get higher up the google ranks). I'm not sure how many people are actually interested in that kind of nitty gritty though...
Matthew Salois23 August 2010 at 06:57 PM
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I'd be interested! I do not know a thing about maintaining a website, or how to get it higher up on google searches, but I have recently been made aware that this can be important for getting attention.
Blanka Sengerová23 August 2010 at 10:00 PM
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There was a good article on maintaining a good homepage in today's Nature Chemistry editorial: http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v2/n9/full/nchem.808.html
Hannah Dee24 August 2010 at 08:33 AM
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Hi Blanka - That article is behind a paywall for me, could you summarise it for us?
Blanka Sengerová24 August 2010 at 09:01 AM
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Sorry, Hannah, I forget that a number of people on here do not have access to the academic journal. Basically it says that although updating a website (either a group head's website or the group members' own webpages or sub-webpages) does not always come as top of the priority list for a researcher, it shouldn't be underestimated. It says that whilst results are traditionally communicated via conferences/seminars and via published papers (more formally), which are available in online archives, they often have very little context. On the other hand, the article argues, "a well-constructed personal website provides a researcher the opportunity to go further than merely indexing their presentations and publications". You can provide background on your research, techniques you are expert in and perhaps resources that are mainly aimed at your group but can be used by others. Last but not least, having photos and highlighting notable achievements can allow the personality of the group to come through. If you have an effective online presence you can be more readily seen in your research community - for new group leaders, this can be a useful way of potential applicants approaching them. Additionally, journal editors may find the webpages useful for finding appropriate editors or contributors to features such as News & Views. The author says that if your webpage is up to date, there my be fewer inappropriate and more appropriate requests for such things. In terms of searchability and design, the author suggests using some keywords as [pages are often found via search engines and discusses the desirability of having an alternative version of the page, perhaps with just very basic biographical information, in another labguage if that is approapriate. The author acknowledges that website design will be very specific, but finishes with a list of desirable qualities, at least from the journal editos point of view. "From the perspective of journal editors who spend a significant amount of time browsing chemists' websites from around the world, there are certainly some elements that are particularly useful. Obviously contact details are important, but so are summaries of research interests as well as lists of representative publications. And it may not be for the camera shy, but a photo is also quite useful because then we know who to look for if we arrange a meeting at a conference. Perhaps the most important aspect of any website, however, is how long ago it was last updated. Broken links and outdated information are no good for anyone."
Sarah Davies25 August 2010 at 08:25 PM
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I notice THES has an article about the web presence issue up, as well, though it seems to focus on official university pages.